VEJOH - VERITAS JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES

Social media is the fastest growing and dominant trend in the use of technology in modern times. Social media generally refers to the interaction of people using various platforms with the absence of geographical location and time barriers. However, there are contrasting opinions on the impact of social media on students' academic development, aimed at strengthening growing knowledge about the influence of social media usage on students with a view to enhancing their learning and academic development. This study provided further clarification on the potential benefits of social media on education by establishing the students' knowledge of social media sites and determining how social media use can affect the academic performance of the students. The study adopted the survey research design using both the quantitative and qualitative methods. With a population of 360, 186 respondents was used as the sample size using simple random sampling From the data and information analysed, it was established that most of the respondents (98.0%) were subscribers of Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, 2go, YouTube and histagram. The study also established that social media has helped the respondents to access and share academic materials and also enable them to interact with one another as individual and as a group. Based on the findings, the study recommends that academic institutions should embrace the use of social media in enhancing learning and communication. That is, students-to-students and teachers-to- students in order to make academic teaching and learning more convenient, effective and efficient.

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